I was
requested to leave my gun against a rock and to follow. It was all very
well for these people, who knew exactly where they were going, but I had
not the slightest idea of my destination, unless it should be the bottom
of the cliff, which appeared to me most probable, if I, who was many
inches broader in the shoulders than my guides, should be expected to
join in the game of "follow the leader" upon a narrow ledge against the
face of the rock which afforded no hold whatever. I was not so fond of
climbing as I had been thirty years ago, and to my infinite disgust the
ledge, which was already horribly small, became narrower as we
proceeded. There was a nasty projecting corner to turn, and at this
point I saw my guides look down below, and I fancied they were
speculating upon the depth. Instead of this, the leader began to descend
the perpendicular face by small ladder-like steps hewn in the rock, and
in this manner gained another ledge not quite six feet below. We all
reached this precarious shelf, and the guide, having turned, continued
for some twenty or thirty yards in an exactly contrary direction to the
ledge above us, by which we had just arrived; we were thus retracing our
steps upon a similar ledge at a lower level. Suddenly the leader
stopped, and stooping low, crept into a square aperture that had been
carefully cut out of the rock face to form an entrance.
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